Armstrong Describes Scandal's Toll on Family

Lance Armstrong said Friday that coming back from a scandal that left him stripped of his titles, banned from sports and without an income will be an "epic challenge."

ENLARGE

Cyclist Lance Armstrong is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.
Reuters

In the second and final installment of his taped interview with television personality
Oprah Winfrey
,
Armstrong revealed more details about his use of performance enhancing drugs, talked about coping with his personal demons and described the toll his fall from grace has taken on his family.

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During Friday's show, Armstrong turned to the subject of his children, showing flashes of emotion. "I saw my son defending me and saying 'that's not true. What you're saying about my dad is not true,' " Armstrong said. That, he said, was when he knew he had to come clean.

Over the holidays, Armstrong said he sat down his 11-year-old twin daughters, Grace and Isabelle, and 13-year-old son, Luke, and told them the truth. "I've always been ruthless and defiant," he said. "I want you to know that it's true." Armstrong said he told his son, Luke, not to defend him anymore. "Just say, 'Hey, my dad said he was sorry.' "

Timeline: A Giant's Fall

Decades of Doping

Photos: Armstrong's Cycling Career

Friday's show, which was shot earlier this week as the sun set outside an Austin, Texas, hotel room, struck a slower, more emotional tone. Armstrong could be seen taking sips of water from a straw and allowing for long pauses. On Thursday, Armstrong admitted publicly for the first time, at the top of the show, that he had doped to win all seven of his Tour de France titles. Under intense questioning by Winfrey about the details of his doping and the attacks he'd made on others to protect his lies, he had seemed anxious, his eyes darting around the room.

Armstrong's decision to come clean is the latest headline in a tumultuous three-year period for the retired cyclist. In May 2010, he was accused of doping by his former teammate,
Floyd Landis
—an allegation that prompted a pair of investigations into his U.S. Postal Service cycling team. On Thursday, Armstrong pointed to Landis's accusations as the beginning of his downfall, citing the original story about Landis's allegations in The Wall Street Journal.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year and banned from professional sports for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. In October, Usada chose to release to the public thousands of pages of documents supporting its decision. The documents included affidavits from roughly a dozen of his former teammates, all of whom accused him of doping.

Shortly after Usada released the documents, all of Armstrong's major sponsors, including
Nike
,
ended their relationship with the athlete, cutting off his major source of income. Armstrong described the day in October when Nike, his biggest sponsor, called to tell him he was being dropped. By the time the day was over, nearly all of Armstrong's major sponsors had severed ties with him. "I don't like thinking about it but that was a $75 million day," Armstrong said.

Armstrong continued to deny allegations against him. He said, for instance, that he never offered a $250,000 donation to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the group that stripped him of his titles and banned him from sports for life.
Travis Tygart,
Usada's chief executive, made the allegation of the attempted donation last week in a television interview. Tygart said Usada chose not to accept the payment, and that the offer was inappropriate.

"We stand by the facts," Usada said in a statement Friday after the interview.

Winfrey asked Armstrong if he thought his use of performance enhancing drugs may have contributed to his testicular cancer. "I don't think so," Armstrong said. She asked Armstrong how his mother, Linda, was holding up. Armstrong said he got a call from his stepfather who told him his mother, who he described as a "tough lady," was having a hard time. When Armstrong saw his mother during a video chat, he said: "I saw my mom, and I—ugh—this woman's a wreck."

Former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong told the world Thursday evening that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his seven Tour de France titles. Video courtesy of Oprah Winfrey Network.

Armstrong also spoke about his ex-wife, Kristin. He said she "certainly knew" about his doping, but not everything. "It was a need to know basis," he said. He did not address the allegation that Kristin was accused in sworn affidavits of passing out cortisone pills to riders on Armstrong's team. In October, Kristin wrote on a blog "there are many things I am not free to discuss because I am constrained by legal principles like marital privilege, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements."

Armstrong said that before he made the decision to come back to cycling in 2008, he asked Kristin for permission. He said she agreed, but only if Armstrong promised not to use performance enhancing drugs. "I gave her my word and I did stick to it," he said.

Ms. Winfrey said that a lot of people think Armstrong is doing this interview because he wants to compete again. "If you're asking me if I want to compete again, hell yes," he said. "This may not be the most popular answer, but I think I deserve it," he added. Armstrong explained that others who admitted doping received six-month bans in exchange for their stories, but that he was given a lifetime sentence.

"I deserve to be punished," he said. "I don't think I deserve a death penalty."

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